


The path ends in love.

by underneaththemoon



Category: markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Conventions, F/M, Friendship, Markiplier - Freeform, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-07 22:06:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4279635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underneaththemoon/pseuds/underneaththemoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Friendship can be formed easily, but with time, so can love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stuck

“I instantly regret this,” I mumbled as I entered the expo hall. This was the first convention I had decided to go to by myself and I don’t know why I had even thought it was a good idea.

People in cosplay were moved left and right, stopping for pictures. Men and women of all ages gawked at the variety of booths filled with toys, comics, and shirts. The booth vendors were yelling about what they had to offer, occasionally rearranging things that convention goers displaced. And there was me. I leaned up against the wall at the far end of the hall, too scared to walk around on my own. To be honest this wasn’t too bad. I was more a people watcher anyways even though it probably looked like I was glued to my phone.

Eventually I decided I had to do something. The fifty dollars spent to be here weren’t going to be wasted just standing doing nothing. Timidly, I made it through one aisle, looking over everything from a few feet away. Nothing really caught my eye. It all looked overpriced for something I could probably get online for less. But it was still cool to see it all there in person. I finally stopped at one booth because they seemed to have a lot of video game items.

Legend of Zelda, Mario, Bioshock, and a bunch of other video games lined the shelves of this booth represented in action figures, books, shirts, and board games. This was right up my alley. I browsed through the shirts, finding the perfect shirt. It was a sweater that said on it “Let’s play video games and cuddle”. It was cute and I thought maybe one day it would be nice to wear around someone who actually would play video games and cuddle with me. Handing the money to the vendor, I left the stall and started pulling the sweater over my head.

Just my luck. My arms got caught up in the clothes, leaving me always blind to the ongoing traffic of people. I heard people telling me to get out of the way, to watch where I was going. I struggle trying to pull it down, but I was so flustered from all the people around me that it became more of a struggle than it needed to be.

“Hey, do you need help?” a voice asked from among all the noise. I nodded my head quickly, feeling tears start to form from all this embarrassment. Realizing quickly, I muttered that I did just loud enough for this person to hear. The person pulled me over to the side of the aisle and in a swift move pulled the sweater down. I blinked my eyes a few times, fixed my glasses, and looked to my saving grace.

I recognized him instantly. He was YouTuber who was known for being silly, angry, and very sweet. Markiplier. I let myself get excited on the inside, but on the outside, I had to thank him for helping me out.

“Thank you, Mark. I mean, uh, dude.” I fumbled over my words, silently cursing at myself for revealing I was a fan. He laughed a warm laugh that made me feel both embarrassed but also welcomed.

“It’s no problem. You looked a little stuck.” I nodded, feeling myself turn red. I knew that I looked like an idiot. And out of all the people that would help me it would be a guy I subscribe to on the internet. It honestly would’ve been worse if it had been one of guys from Game Grumps or RoosterTeeth because I was more versed in their content, but Markiplier I only really knew was a toned, goofy sweetheart.

I guess I had a been so distracted in my embarrassment that I didn’t notice that he was still talking to me.

“I’m sorry, what?" 

"I asked what your name was,” he said, smiling. I realized that he was wearing a special badge for the con. Why was he still talking to me when he could be off doing cool stuff?

“Liara. Liara Evans.” I held out my hand out of instinct to shake it. I didn’t expect him for him to take it and pull me into a hug, but I wasn’t complaining. It was a warm hug and it felt genuine coming from someone I just met. People around me looked at Mark, excited to see him, and then looked at me, confused as to who I was.

We exchanged conversation for a bit before I felt like I was taking up all his time. I smiled when it felt like he was done talking and muttered a goodbye. Turning around, I almost felt like running away. Although it was really cool to meet him, I was still uncomfortable as heck at his convention.

“Hey, wait up!” I heard Mark call out from behind me. I turned around to see him catching up to me. “ Are you here alone? If you’re not here with anyone, why don’t you hang out with me?”

My heart jumped and my brain fired off. That dude who screamed like a girl at horror games and had millions of people who enjoyed that stuff invited me to hang out with him. It was mildly exciting for that reason, but more so for the fact that I wouldn’t have to go around by myself. I accepted his invitation and he pulled out an extra special pass.

“I was supposed to have a friend here, but he got sick and couldn’t come so you’ll be my friend today. If you wear this, you can come to panels with me. It’ll be fun.”


	2. Move

The first couple hours of walking around with Mark happened the way I thought they would. We would be walking, talking about something completely random brought on by something we saw when a fan or twelve would run up to Mark, asking for pictures and videos. I'd stand to the side, watching and talking with some of the people.

"How do you know Mark?" a girl asked, half paying attention as she posted her picture of Mark and her onto Tumblr. 

"Oh, I don't. Well, we just met." She looked up from her phone and frowned.

"I just met him. I wanna hang out!" I shrugged. We exchanged URLs and made false comments saying we'd look for each other on the floor during the next couple days. Mark had just finished meeting another group of people when he came back to me. I could tell that he was starting to get tired and overwhelmed - we'd been stopped by at least a hundred people. I offered for us to go sit down. 

We made our way back down the aisle we had just gone through, Mark trying to go through without causing much of a scene. I kept behind him, keeping my eye on his feet and making sure I wasn't going to step on anyone's heels. Eventually we made it to the end where the convention center food court was. 

"Hey, go find a seat and I'll be right back," Mark called, quickly walking into the food court. I lost sight of him in the sea of hungry people so I went to do what he told me. At the end of the area of tables was an empty one, perfect set with just two chairs as surrounding tables had taken the rest. I darted over to it, tossing my bag into the empty chair. It did feel really good to finally just sit. Looking at my phone, I realized I had already been here for five hours. 

Time had started to go by with no sign of Mark. I kept my eyes on my phone, trying to not seem like I was worried he wasn't coming back. Scrolling through Twitter, I found some of the people I was following with pictures of Mark before we had met up. That guy had the sweetest, most loving smiles. You could tell he loved every fan he met. 

"Thirsty?" A loud thump on the table and there was now a huge bottle of water. Mark delicately moved my bag onto the table and sat down in the seat. He cracked open the bottle he had for himself and took a long drink. "It's way too hot in here. At least, I'm way too hot in here." He wiggled his eyebrow at me and we both laughed.

The two of us continued talking, moving on from small talk to actually getting to know each other. It felt weird. Slowly, he no longer was really Markiplier, but Mark Fischbach, a really cool guy who wanted to hang out. We talked about things like where I was from, where he was from, both of our careers (though my career is just school at this point), and a bunch of other stuff. People were still coming up to him for pictures, but they lessened and lessened as time went on. That's when Mark noticed the time."

"Fuck, I'm late," he said quickly standing up. I got up after, grabbing at my bag.

"Late for what?"

"The Game Grumps Panel. I promised Arin I'd sit up there with them." I nodded and grabbed him by the arm. Mark took my sign of wanting to go with him and grinned. We walked alongside each other at a fast past, arms linked and talking about what was planned for the panel. They were going to do Q and A, talk about current Grump on goings, and then invite Mark up to play Cards Against Humanity with them. Mark made sure I knew that I'd have a seat next to him in the audience right up in the front.

~~~

The panel was fun. The Grump guys were hilarious as always. Mark introduced me to them afterwards as a friend which totally caught me off guard being that the two of us had only met six hours ago at this point. They invited us over to their office later that evening. Mark said yes, I said maybe. We then left the panel room and made our way to a less populated area.

"Hey, you good?" Mark asked, probably wondering why I gave a maybe after being so excited to meet the Game Grumps. I explained to him that I was nervous - scared even. I was being thrown into the position of being "Markiplier's new friend" and I was just nervous to what came with that. Luckily, Mark reassured me. It helped that his smile brought joy and comfort to even the post panicky of people which I definitely felt like. 

After a couple more hours on the floor, Mark and I came to a consensus that it was time to bail. Our feet were sore, his voice was hoarse, and I was just flat out tired. Mark had taken a driving service to the convention, not wanting to deal with the horrendous parking. I wish I had thought of that before sitting and waiting for a parking spot for two hours that morning. He asked if I could drive us to the Grump Space. I almost blurted some dumb reason as to why I couldn't, but Mark put his arm around my shoulder and offered to pay for gas. 

How could I say no to free gas in this economy?


End file.
